These patches, as they’re officially known, will address bugs as well as security vulnerabilities exposing your system to attackers. Apply them as soon as they’re available, and make it a daily routine.
Vulnerabilities, which are flaws in software/hardware systems, make it possible for hackers to recall memory content and infiltrate data and devices. Therefore, administrators will faced with issues concerning regulatory compliance, consumers exposure, lack of effective procedure and risks such as cyber attacks and system downtime unnecessarily if they don’t perform regular system upgrades.
Check for Updates
The best way to keep your computer secure and perform well is to make sure that is kept up to date when it comes to its software. Security updates, which might come in the form of patches provided by the software company to counter malware challenges, are often provided along with bug fixes to further improve the software function or ensure compatibility with other systems or pieces of hardware.
To see if you have the most recent, click on any open programs, make sure you’re signed into Wi-Fi, and then click the small ‘Apple’ logo in the top-left of your laptop. Once the menu shows up, click on ‘About This Mac’. On the new page, information about your computer appears, including the OS X El Capitan (or some other) operating system you have installed on your computer and the current version of Safari installed on it.
Click on ‘Software Update’ at the top to check for any updates available for your Mac OS X apps, which could take a couple of hours (if they are a complicated update) and even a reboot of your machine (if needed). It will keep you posted as the installation goes along – some do.
Download the Update
Configuration Manager, however, will automatically deploy – and can delegate the distribution of – software updates such as patches, communicating with point of presence sites to download an installer on to a server location on site, and can also use the Download Software Updates wizard to have you download those updates on a trial basis in another network folder for storage.
On the Select Deployment Package page, select a deployment package that’s compatible with the software updates that you want to deploy to computers in your site. The software update deployment package that you select must contain the updates that you plan to download and install; software update groups can contain those updates for easier selection and deployment.
On Download Location screen pick up a location on the network where software updates will be stored. Here the computer account under which wizard is running has to have Write permission to this location – so an attacker would not have been able to edit file sources for software updates. On Completion Page, check if without any error the updates have been downloaded and click Close button.
Install the Update
Typically, updates will be installed automatically within an application once the application identifies that there is an update to download, but most programs will also inform when there is an update that can be automatically downloaded and installed by clicking on the notification.
Usually, failing to install software updates on your computer makes it stop working. Others are security patches, fixing holes that an attacker could exploit to get in.
However, updating software by hand is certainly not the only possibility, for there are specialized programs that will run checks and download updates for you automatically. Some of those have options that allow you to enable automatic installation at start up, or to check for updates at pre-defined time intervals, install betas and modify where downloaded setup files can be stored or something alike. For those who would not want to spend the time or effort of actively searching out the updates by themselves, this is a wonderful solution.
Restart
Staying on top of software updates is one of the best ways to counter cyberattacks, since hackers like to keep an eye out for exploitable vulnerabilities. Time spent doing this is time well spent.
You can restart your OS, which acts as an operating system for the computer, but which itself comprises many individual programmes, and which is attributable to a brand of your computer. Yet, despite this layered structure, it may be that some updates need a full restart: each component must go down for its update, but it can’t go down unless the one above it does so first.
There are a number of methods for performing a forced restart when you have updated software. When running Windows, reset using ctrl+alt+del when using command prompt, where it will shut down all windows and reboot your PC. For Macs, use the Apple App Store, and when an update is available, install it as need be.
